Showing Out

Looks as though a new contender couldn’t unseat Marin Scorcese’s Shutter Island from number one, where it held the box office last weekend during its first few days in theaters. Yesterday at the box office, the Leonardo DiCaprio-starring film came in at the top of the b.o., pulling in an additional $6.7 million and upping its overall domestic cume to $59.6 million earned in just eight days. Meanwhile, the Kevin Smith-directed buddy cop movie Cop Out came in a close number two with $6 million in ticket sales, while pseudo-zombie flick The Crazies came in an even closer third with $5.9 million to put it at number three. And, of course, Avatar still isn’t going away, pulling in an additional $3.1 million to up its overall cume to $696 mil, while Valentine’s Day goes strong at number five with another $2.9 million to its overall tally, which now stands at $93.8 mil. Guess the weather just can’t stop people from seeing their precious films.

As if it came as any surprise, Lee Daniels’ Precious swept the NAACP Image Awards this evening. The film, which stars Gabourey Sidibe as an obese teenage mother stuck in an abusive household, won six of the eight awards for which it was nominated, including the prizes for best motion picture and best independent feature. Additionally, Sidibe won best actress over Sandra Bullock, while Mo’Nique won best supporting actress, writer Geoffrey Fletcher won for outstanding writing and Daniels won for best direction. And as for other film awards, Morgan Freeman won best actor for Invictus while best documentary went to Chris Rock’s Good Hair. Hit the jump to see the full list of tonight’s winners.

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The above trailer is for the 1941 film Suspicion, an Alfred Hitchcock classic. And like all good things in Hollywood, a remake is on the way to destroy it - unless Will Smith, who’s rumored to be producing and starring in it, can work his movie magic. According to Latino Review, Paramount is currently entertaining the idea of remaking the film with Smith on board to play a role originated by Cary Grant. The film, which was originally based on Francis Iles’ 1932 novel Before the Fact, focuses on a coy English woman (originally played by Joan Fontaine) who ends up marrying a British man (Grant), only to begin to suspect that he’s going to kill her. Soon, the audience is thrown into a confounding dilemma over who is actually the sane one in the relationship. Hey, at least it sounds better than Hitchcock the movie.

Comedian Craig Robinson, best known for his role on The Office, can next be seen on the big screen in the upcoming film Hot Tub Time Machine. But he’s also hitting the small screen - you know, for like, the three-hundredth time. According to THR’s Live Feed, Robinson has been tapped to host NBC’s Last Comic Standing, a position that’s previously been held by Anthony Clark, Bill Bellamy and Jay Mohr. Though the show skipped a season last year, this marks the show’s seventh recurring season on the network, with the grand return taking place this summer. No word on when it’s going to actually air, but keep that Google button in mind for when the month turns to June.

Tracy Morgan-hosted? Jamie Foxx-produced? Sold. Above is the trailer for Laffapalooza!: Live From Las Vegas, headed for DVD release on March 16th care of Code Black Entertainment. The DVD features stand-up routines from Lavell Crawford, Mark Curry, Earthquake, Corey Holcomb and Sheryl Underwood from their night of comedy at a club in Las Vegas, having originally aired on TBS back in November 2009. And what’s not to love here? Jokes about the recession, Michael Jackson, Obama - the list goes on. Click over to Amazon to get your pre-order on, and make sure you add this one to your home collection for some good ol’ laugh-on-demand entertainment.

He can’t be serious here. A lot of the veteran rappers who have come to defend Soulja Boy over the past few years need to check themselves, because this here is straight-up garbage. Above is the video for his new joint “Pretty Boy Swag,” which is about as complex as a straight line. Not only is the video bland and uninteresting (rap cliches galore - scantily clad females, bling as far as the eye can see, etc.), but the song is so mundane and flat that we’re almost offended that this was released. And just to make it clear, it pays off to be educated. This right here sounds like it was written by a third grader. Flush this one down the toilet.

Each week, Showing Out will keep you up-to-date with a post giving the rundown of all the freshly released films. Some, you might have already known about, while others - well, not so much. So without further ado, here’s a look at some of the movies that might convince you enough to brave the outside world and head to the theater this weekend.

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Man, oh man. Remember Devon Sawa, star of Idle Hands and Final Destination? And wonder where he’s been for the past few years or so? Well it looks like he’s gone from B-list to D-list. The above trailer is for his straight-to-DVD release Creature of Darkness, which looks about as awful as its title suggests. Sawa co-stars alongside Sanoe Lake, Matthew Lawrence (!!!) and Kevin Alejandro in a film where Sawa is forced to confront a creature from his nightmares when he and a group of adventurous souls venture into the woods. If it sounds suspiciously similar to Final Destination, then your assumptions are correct. This one hits home video on April 13th, but we’re assuming you’re going to pass on this one, too.

Arguably one of the best moments of The Chappelle Show was Charlie Murphy telling his story of hanging out with Rick James in the ’80s. And given its popularity, you’d expect for it to haunt him forever. It did. In the above clip from Murphy’s I Will Not Apologize DVD, Murphy explains that instead of people coming up to him and giving him a pound like any normal person would, they instead greet him with his signature Rick James impersonation: “F*** yo couch!” If this tickles the funny bones, click over and get yourself a copy of the new DVD, his first-ever live performance release. You won’t regret this purchase.

We know what you’re thinking. Why would we post a picture of someone that looks like he’s going to pop out of your computer screen and choke you out? With good reason. According to Latino Review, Bob Sapp, the gent on the left, has just been cast in the upcoming Conan the Barbarian as Ukafa, a role for which Shad Gaspard explained earlier this week that he’d auditioned for. But instead, Sapp, an MMA superstar, has been cast in the Marcus Nispel-directed film. According to the site, the character description is as follows:

Ukafa is in his 30s-40, very dark-skinned African or African American, massively framed at six-foot-five, gold-toothed, hardened by a lifetime of war, a leader of Kushite Tribemen from the savannahs of Kush. Ukafa is Khalar Singh’s second in command, jealous that Singh’s son, Fariq, will one day be warlord. He obeys his leader but plots the overthrow of his son. He is a mighty warrior and unbeatable in battle—until he comes face to face with Conan.

Let’s hope that this one isn’t in 3-D - the last thing we need is for Sapp to jump off the big screen and duff us in our glasses-covered faces.